A Bauble for Bobbling Ballplayers

Just like any sports fan, the first place I turn for insight into biochemistry and physiology is Major League Baseball. So as I noticed more and more players wearing thin, nylon-covered necklaces made by a Japanese company called Phiten, I knew that a ballplayer would be the best source of good scientific information.

Thankfully, New York Yankee ace Randy Johnson outlined the benefits of the necklaces.

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"Liquid titanium is supposed to generate positive and negative ions in your body that will allow the blood to flow better, and increase circulation in those areas," Johnson told USA Today earlier this year.

Sounds great! Now, Johnson might not be the most objective witness, as he's featured prominently on Phiten's website and promotional materials, leading one to conclude that he's a paid endorser.

But the company's $23 Titanium Necklace, available in 19 fashion colors to match whatever uniform you might find yourself in, has become the hottest fashion accessory in the majors. More than 100 players are wearing the necklace, and the company can't be paying them all, right?

I'll never play pro ball, but here was a little piece of the game I could experience. I got my hands on one of these beauties, giddy with delight at the prospect of the benefits it promised.

"Improved flow of bioelectrical current helps red blood cells carry more oxygen and currents through the body," read the back of my necklace's box. "Helps relieve pain and stress. Fatigue is reduced. Athletic ability is enhanced due to greater strength and relaxation."

Ignoring my wife's complaints about the necklace's dubious fashion value, I fastened it around my neck, and waited for the magic to kick in.

And waited. And waited. There was a twinge ... no, that's just my back acting up. Shouldn't it have been helped by my newly increased blood flow?

After several weeks of wear while enduring ongoing taunts from my wife, I came to the sad conclusion that the Phiten necklace just wasn't doing it for me. I had just the same level of stress and fatigue as before.

I guess I should have kept reading the necklace's packaging. You know, the part where it warned me that the claims on the box "have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration." It also noted that individual results may vary.

It doesn't come as a total surprise that a necklace like this has become the hot new talisman in Major League Baseball. Baseball players have a superstitious streak that makes your run-of-the-mill schizophrenic look centered and balanced.

Over the long history of the game, players have done everything from not stepping on the foul lines to wearing the same jock strap for years to try and gain an edge. In a study published earlier this year in the journal Basic and Applied Social Psychology, about 75 percent of baseball players surveyed said they had some sort of superstition, and more than half had some ritual that they performed every game.

Jerry Burger, a professor of psychology at Santa Clara University, was an author of the study. He says that the large role that luck plays in baseball, where the line between success and failure can be a bad bounce or clearing the fence by inches, drives players to superstitions.

"We know from a lot of research that the more uncertainty there is in a situation, the more luck enters into it, the more superstitious behavior you get," says Burger. "What superstition is about is trying to harness luck."

So when a product like the Phiten necklace shows up, it's not surprising that players flock to it.

"It's almost taking the attitude that it can't hurt," says Burger. "(The necklace) might work, so why not do it?"

Of course, the fact that I couldn't find any scientific publications confirming Phiten's claims about its product isn't proof the necklace doesn't work.

"There's always a placebo effect," says Will Carroll, who covers injuries for Baseball Prospectus and wrote The Juice. "The question is, 'How much do you want to pay for it?' A titanium necklace is probably just as good as a friendship bracelet that your daughter makes for you."

It's a strange, circular world the ballplayer lives in. The necklace works because he thinks it works. And because he thinks it works, who knows, it just might.